For the purpose of the present description, a “beverage” is meant to include any human-consumable liquid substance, such as coffee, tea, hot or cold chocolate, milk, soup, baby food or the like. A “capsule” is meant to include any pre-portioned beverage ingredient or combination of ingredients (hereafter called “ingredient”) within an enclosing packaging of any suitable material such as plastic, aluminium, a recyclable and/or bio-degradable material and combinations thereof, including a soft pod or a rigid cartridge containing the ingredient.
Certain beverage preparation machines use capsules containing an ingredient to be extracted or to be dissolved and/or an ingredient that is stored and dosed automatically in the machine or else is added at the time of preparation of the drink. Some beverage machines possess liquid filling means that include a pump for liquid, usually water, which pumps the liquid from a source of water that is cold or indeed heated through heating means, e.g. a thermoblock or the like. Certain beverage preparation machines are arranged to prepare beverages by using a centrifugation extraction process. The principle mainly consists in providing beverage ingredient in a container of the capsule, feeding liquid in the receptacle and rotating the receptacle at elevated speed to ensure interaction of liquid with powder while creating a gradient of pressure of liquid in the receptacle; such pressure increasing gradually from the centre towards the periphery of the receptacle. As liquid traverses the coffee bed, extraction of the coffee compounds takes place and a liquid extract is obtained that flows out at the periphery of the receptacle.
Typically, it is suitable to offer to the user a range of capsules of different types containing different ingredients (e.g., different coffee blends) with specific taste characteristics, to prepare a variety of different beverages (e.g., different coffee types) with a same machine. The characteristics of the beverages can be varied by varying the content of the capsule (e.g., coffee weight, different blends, etc.) and by adjusting key machine parameters such as the supplied liquid volume or temperature, the rotational speed, the pressure pump. Therefore, there is a need for identifying the type of capsule inserted in the beverage machine to enable the adjustment of the brewing parameters to the inserted type. Moreover, it may also be desirable for capsules to embed additional information, for example safety information like use-by date or production data like batch numbers.
WO2010/026053 relates to a controlled beverage production device using centrifugal forces. The capsule may comprise a barcode provided on an outside face of the capsule and which enables a detection of the type of capsule and/or the nature of ingredients provided within the capsule in order to apply a predefined extraction profile for the beverage to be prepared.
It is known from the art, for example in document EP1764015A1, to print locally an identifying barcode on a small area of the circular crown of a coffee wafer for use with a conventional non-centrifugation coffee brewing systems. Said systems comprise a barcode reader to read the identifying barcode on the capsule. Barcode readers or barcode scanners are electronic devices comprising a light source, a lens and a light sensor translating optical impulses into electrical ones. They generally comprise a light-emitting/laser diode, or a camera-type sensor. Barcode readers in beverage preparation machine are adapted to read the barcode either by moving the sensing element across the bars (by moving/changing the orientation of the light source beam to scan the entire code), or by taking an image of the whole code at a time with a light-sensitive array/matrix.
Using such kind of code readers is not adapted to be used in the context of a centrifugation extraction based system having a rotating brewing unit. The use of barcode readers having moving parts like a scanning element may raise severe concerns in term of reliability since it is likely to be exposed to a harsh environment with cyclical vibrations and hot vapors when placed at the immediate vicinity of the rotating brewing unit. Barcode reader with camera-type sensor should be positioned so as to be able to take an image of the whole barcode. As a consequence, the entire code needs to be directly visible from the reader. The free space available in a rotating brewing unit dedicated to a code reader being quite limited, it is generally not possible to meet this visibility requirement.
Whatever the kind of barcode reader used, the geometrical configuration of the rotating brewing units in centrifugation extraction based systems prevents the barcode reader to read a code spread on a large section of the capsule: as a consequence, the dimensions of the barcode are strictly limited, leading to a very low quantity of coded information for a given level of reliability of the readings, typically around 20 bits only. In addition barcode readers are quite expensive.
Reliably reading code printed on a capsule while said capsule is positioned into a rotating brewing unit implies the reliable recognition of sequences of symbols forming said code, in particular in the harsh environment of the rotating brewing unit. Moreover, the code should also be readable, without knowledge by the code reader of the position and/or orientation in which the capsule has been inserted in the capsule holder. Traditional barcodes and other optical coding element known in the art for a capsule fail to meet these requirements.
Co-pending international patent application PCT/EP11/057670 relates to a support adapted to be associated with or be a part of a capsule for the preparation of a beverage. The support comprises a section on which at least one sequence of symbols is represented so as that each symbol is sequentially readable, by a reading arrangement of an external device, while the capsule is driven in rotation along an axis of rotation, each sequence code a set of information related to the capsule. Such invention enables to make a large volume of coded information available, such as about 100 bits of redundant or non-redundant information, without using barcode readers having moving parts like a scanning element which may raise severe concerns in terms of reliability. Another advantage is also to be able to read the code support by rotating the capsule while the capsule is in place, in a ready to brew position in the rotary capsule holder. However, the structure of the sequence code.
However, there is still a need to improve the pattern and/or structure of the code represented on the support to enhance the reliability of the readings, in the particular conditions met in a centrifugal beverage machine using capsules for the preparation of the beverage. It still exists a need to provide a capsule with a code reliably readable by a code reader without knowledge of the position and/or orientation of said code, when the capsule is positioned in the rotating capsule holder of a centrifugation extraction based system.